London pub crawlshttps://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com
A blog on pub crawling, and beer generally, in LondonSat, 03 Feb 2018 16:20:14 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngLondon pub crawlshttps://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com
Cheapsidehttps://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2018/02/03/cheapside/
https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2018/02/03/cheapside/#commentsSat, 03 Feb 2018 13:26:45 +0000http://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/?p=3305To kick off 2018, I led a walk around the Cheapside area of the City, taking in some old and new pubs, and eventually a philosophical discussion about what a pub actually is.

We met at the Ship, a small traditional Nicholson’s pub, tucked away down a small alley connecting Gracechurch Street with Cheapside. It sits on the site of an old coaching inn, the Talbot, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, but still gives its name to the alley; the pub itself was renamed the Ship after its 17th century reconstruction. It is small and cosy inside but there’s plenty of room to spill out into the alley outside, and they manage to pack several good ales onto the bar.

Leaving the 17th century, we headed east and past a symbol of the 21st century, the Walkie Talkie, which looms large over Cheapside, and along Plantation Place, which has a fascinating piece of art on the paving, commemorating 2,000 years of the City’s history. Across the road in the lower level arcade of Minster Court we came to the Tank & Paddle, a large and modern craft beer and pizza bar. There are no real ales here, but its key feature is that it sells Meantime Brewery beer fresh from tanks (as opposed to casks or kegs). Accordingly we went for a rare lager, to test their brewery fresh concept, and it was pretty good, certainly a big step up from one of the mainstream keg lagers.

The third pub of the night was the second called the Ship, this time in a beautiful tall, narrow Grade II listed building. Inside you feel a long way from the City of London, the small bar serves a couple of ales and the atmosphere feels like a small local.

Next we turned the corner into Seething Lane at the church of St Olave’s, named after Norwegian King Olaf who fought alongside Ethelred the Unready against the Danes at the Battle of London Bridge in 1014; the church was built on the site of the battle. It was the church frequented by Samuel Pepys, who is buried here with his wife. Other interesting burials include Mother Goose, recorded in the burial register in 1586; and Mary Ramsay, who is believed to be the carrier of the plague to London in 1665; she was the first Londoner to die of the disease, and that year just this tiny church alone registered 365 plague victims. It is worth pausing to look at the graveyard’s gates, described as “ghastly grim” by Charles Dickens; the gates are inscribed with their date of erection (1658 – they survived the great fire) and contain a trio of skulls with cross bones.

A few paces down we came to the Draft House Seething, a large modern square bar, and another to offer tank beer, this time Pilsner Urquell from the Czech Republic. There are just one or two cask ales, but a very wide range of keg and bottled beer.

At the other end of the street lies another historic church, All Hallows by the Tower. As the name suggests, it is just next to the Tower of London, but is in fact much older, having been founded in 675; the oldest part of the church today is a 7th century arch, which was partially built with recycled Roman tiles. The bodies of those executed at the Tower were brought to the church before burial. Happier moments include the baptism of William Penn, who went on to found Pennsylvania, in 1644, and the marriage of John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States, in 1797.

Across the road lies the next pub, the Hung Drawn and Quartered, named for the grisly end that came to some of those executed at the Tower. It is a fairly standard Fuller’s pub with the usual decent ales on the bar (and on Paul’s trousers on this occasion…)

Back along Cheapside now, we paused to admire 33-35 Cheapside, now beautifully lit in the shadow of the Walkie Talkie behind. Back when Cheapside was London’s main meat market (cheap being the Old English for market), the main pub in the area was the Boar’s Head Inn, made famous by references in several of Shakespeare’s plays, and it was the base of Falstaff in Henry IV Part 1. The pub is sadly long lost to a road scheme, but this building commemorates it through the sign of a boar’s head poking through grass, and portraits of the heads of Henry IV and Henry V on the facade. The original Boar’s Head Inn sign is now at Shakespeare’s Globe.

We walked down the beautiful Lovat Lane next; this used to be Love Lane, on account of the ladies of the night that used to frequent this alley, to the Walrus and Carpenter, another Nicholson’s pub with a pretty good range of ales on the bar. The pub is very close to Pudding Lane, where the Great Fire of London started in September 1666. It was not taken so seriously at first; the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas Bloodworth, said “Pish! A woman might piss it out!”

As it was it destroyed most of London’s civic buildings, St Paul’s Cathedral, 87 churches, and around 13,000 homes; the death toll was reportedly as low as six, although it is believed now to have been much higher. The Monument itself stands sentry in the heart of this neighbourhood, a 62 metre high stone column with a viewing platform at the top. The inscription for many years falsely blamed Catholics for starting the fire; the words were only chiselled out in 1831.

Around the Monument lie three pubs; we chose the Hydrant, a modern Fuller’s format which sells their usual ales but also a large range of craft beers, mainly on keg. The Hydrant is attractively fitted out with a fire theme, including ceiling lights made of fire extinguishers and a nice room upstairs with fire station doors. A shame they didn’t commemorate my distant ancestor, John Lofting, who in the aftermath of the Great Fire registered patents for two of his inventions, the fire engine and its scaled-down cousin, the beer engine – giving the world draught beer!

Anyway, the Hydrant provoked an interesting discussion; is it a pub or a bar? And what’s the difference? Some are obviously one or the other, but some are harder to pin down. I’m not sure that we really resolved this, but I think most generally bought into a theory I passed on (can’t remember where I first read it); that a pub is purpose-built and a bar is not; if a pub closes and is converted into something else, you look at it and think straight away “that used to be a pub”. A bar is a retail unit that sells alcohol; if it turns into an estate agent, who would know it had ever been a bar? It’s not a perfect system, as some of the oldest pubs started out as houses, and many of the newest micropubs started out as shops, but I think it’s a fairly good rule of thumb for most, so I’m sticking with it!

The second long debate was the Pub of the Crawl. There were wide views on this, proving that there’s no such thing as the perfect pub, everyone has different perspectives. But in the end there has to be a winner, and we voted for the first Ship (in Talbot Court); some of the newer pubs may have been more spacious and able to serve a wider range of beers, but for me, they can be replaced; if we were to lose a 17th century pub down an alley, a part of our history is lost. So congratulations to the Ship!

We also occasionally nominate a Beer of the Crawl; and being suckers for Citra, we (mostly) went for, and greatly enjoyed, Siren’s Suspended in Citra at the Hydrant. Congratulations to Siren!

As ever we met close to the tube for convenience, and you can’t get closer to Southwark station than The Ring, directly across the street, and named after a boxing arena of the same name, which was destroyed in the last war. It’s a fairly small corner pub, which was fairly busy but without any queue at the bar and space to stand. As it’s a small pub the beer range isn’t vast, but it is good, with several good casks and a range of craft beer on the keg lines.

We headed east from here, past the Dog & Pot sculpture recalling Charles Dickens’s memories of this corner, to a very newly reopened pub, Mc & Sons, which prior to its refurbishment had been the Charles Dickens, and is owned by the same company as The Ring. This has a different vibe, though, with an Irish theme, but tastefully done, with weathered wood all around and a gorgeous snug at the front of the pub. The beer range included some excellent beers sourced from Irish breweries including Boundary Brewing of Belfast and Kinnegar of Donegal, alongside a good range of more local casks.

On leaving we called at the Crossbones graveyard before heading to the Gladstone, or the Glad; sadly on this occasion it was closed for a private party so we had to continue, pausing in the beautiful Trinity Church Square. As well as a beautiful church-turned-orchestral rehearsal/recording space, the Henry Wood Hall, the centre of the square hosts a statue of King Alfred, believed by many to be London’s oldest statue, having been ordered by Richard II as one of a set of eight for Westminster Hall in 1395.

A few more steps and we reached the Roebuck, a good pub on a prominent corner site, with a smallish but good range of cask and craft beers. Interestingly this sits across the street from the site where building work in the 1990s turned up a Roman grave, which experts at the Museum of London believe is the only known grave ever found of a female gladiator.

We came next into Tower Bridge Road, and the first micropub we’ve ever called at one one of our zone 1 crawls, The Other Room. In common with the typical micropub formula this is a small former shop, kitted out with wooden seating and a small bar, though unusually the focus is on craft keg beer rather than cask ale, and prices were higher than you may expect at a cask micropub. Nevertheless it was a very homely find, and the beers were all local Bermondsey/Rotherhithe beers.

A few minutes to the north we came to the Simon the Tanner, a good pub which is larger than it looks, extending some way to the back. There is a range of good cask and craft keg beers, with the local theme continuing here with several of us going for the Zeus Pale Ale from Kernel, who kick-started the Bermondsey brewing scene a few minutes’ walk to the east.

Next up we headed close to London Bridge station for the Rose, which had once been in the crawl itinerary but was, when we arrived, in an advanced state of demolition; someone hadn’t done their homework! Fortunately they completed their refurbishment and reopened the pub a few months later, and it remains a lovely interior, though sadly with just a solitary handpump, which on this particular evening was dry; they had a couple of decent kegs though including Shipyard Rye Pale Ale, which we went for.

A very short hop away lies the Horseshoe, the last stop of the evening. This is quite a large pub, which feels like it could support a larger range of interesting beers being on the cusp of where London’s brewing centre of Bermondsey rubs up against central London, but the ales were fairly standard (Hobgoblin, Brakspear).

Finally we had quite a long debate on the Pub of the Crawl, with various different opinions; but eventually we settled on Mc & Sons, in recognition of the amazing job they’ve done in refurbishing the pub such that you would be hard-pressed to notice that the building it sits in was pretty much gutted and rebuilt over the last couple of years.

And we also nominated a Beer of the Crawl this month; Kernel’s Zeus Pale Ale, as drunk in the Simon the Tanner. Congratulations!

]]>https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/12/03/borough/feed/1londonpubcrawlsBoundary.jpgKing AlfredtheotherroomWhere are all the pubs in Chelsea?https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/10/30/where-are-all-the-pubs-in-chelsea/
https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/10/30/where-are-all-the-pubs-in-chelsea/#respondMon, 30 Oct 2017 14:14:14 +0000http://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/?p=3295There has been an alarming trend over the last 20 years which has left some “wealthy” communities without a local pub. Not every pub in Chelsea that has been lost gets a mention here but there have been enough recently to be a cause for concern.

The frontage of The Markham Arms – now a bank struggling for business was once a thriving pub on the King’s Road. It’s one of many pub sites that have claimed in the Chelsea past to have had celebrity drinkers – The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton etc.

Even the more famous “Chelsea Drugstore” was originally a pub – and is now a McDonalds!

Many pubs are listed building so you would think they would be preserved. But listed status only preserves the building and not really it’s use. In our crawls over the last 11 years we have seen a few really good pubs disappear.

But it isn’t so much the central postcodes affected because here the footfall is strong with a concentration of tourists, office workers or students – it is the fringes and outside of London where the problem facing communities losing pubs is well documented.

It’s not quite what it seems, closures are still commonplace but this is a pattern very unlikely to be repeated in the rest of the country as we reveal below. We have already mentioned that the gastropub has a unique place in urban London since the Zone 1 pub is less likely to have room for a separate restaurant. Pubs can go gastro, at least in this instance the cask ale shares it’s home with the kitchen. The Kings Arms and Sekforde Arms shown below were both located in heavily residential – or increasingly gentrified – areas of Zone 1.

Pub trends over the years

Most London pubs date back a few centuries centuries although their interiors tend to be late Victorian. Concentration of pub ownership in the last century was initially a small number of free houses competing with huge pub outlets tied to big brewers with a limited selection of their own beers. Much campaigning was fought to break this up and in 1989 the MMC produced a report on the beer supply chain. The main recommendation was that the big breweries were monopolising the supply. Breaking this vertical meant that pubs owned by breweries was “not in the public interest”. Instead they became owned by pub companies who could choose which beer they could sell. Well not exactly – due to economic subsidies – this takes us slightly off the scent. The point is really that pub cos were little more than management firms looking for profit.

When the brewery owned pubs they were interested in beer, the pub company could start to look at other lines of income and if it could make a guaranteed income from other operations it would be tempted.

Other business use

Pub buildings can generate more revenue as a bank or car park then it simply changed its business use without anything other than very localised consultation

In the place of small community pubs there was another convenient corner shop or estate agent, according to local demand, and this is the case throughout the country. In Chelsea the problem is even more severe where real estate values also high that the temptation is to convert the pub to residential. Even restaurants can go.

For London the big brewers that have moved away, for example Young’s now in Bedford not Wandsworth, have been replaced by a plethora of new microbreweries in to London to fill that void where the demand for ale is still rampant. Central London outlets therefore have a real chance but the temptation to sell out for housing in Chelsea has decimated the pub scene within this part of zone one. It’s hard to find a decent boozer. let alone a decent cask ale in these parts.

Going, going, gone – The Moore Arms, now residential

Pubs on the high street have been easy pickings with a change of commercial use warranting very few objections since the residential properties in the immediate area were never sunstantial. In residential areas the decision to convert a pub to residential use would be welcomed and rarely opposed, simply because the local residents had probably complained about the pub, even if their occupancy was more recent, always the case, if a pub had been there for over 100 years! Wouldn’t the new owners have known there was this possibility? Had they not visited the property at these busy times before deciding to buy?

Objecting to a pub because you are next to it ignores the fact that the wider community benefits from such a facility. Groups like he Chelsea society for presentation have woken up to the fact that losing a pub impacts a lot of people. In this part of inner Chelsea the Australian and The Shuckburgh went in the same year, and the Moore Arms was only a few years earlier. The area is now much quieter and more residential with very little trace left of what the area was like a decade ago.

The Shuckburgh Arms is now a cafe with a different name of course, ignoring the fact that the Shuckburgh family owned much of the land in the area over 100 years earlier. Heritage lost.

The Australian took its name from a cricketing tradition between nations before even The Oval existed. Now there is no trace since the block of flats to the left engulfed it in a continuous building.

Preserving society?

Preservation societies had concentrated on listed buildings and ancient monuments and not actually what keeps society going the way it is – failing to preserve everyday culture by preserving the use of buildings not just its outward appearance. More recently the value these buildings have to the community has been recognised and with it some councils will respect the designation “Asset of Community Value”

By the time the Cross Keys came up for its redevelopment application a few years ago the Society stepped in and insisted that the pub elements be retained. This is now the case at The Queens Arms and it still lies dormant – nearly two centuries of drinking was brought to an end recently followed by an application to convert into residence.

In the past pub closures were due to unpopularity and the licence would be recycled (in a way) by applying for a licence in another commercial property in the area. But in Chelsea the pubs have simply been lost and there is no going back. Both the Phene Arms, where George Best used to drink, and the Cross Keys have been saved as pubs by the community. With the Queens Head there is still more to do because it still has to be commercially viable. New landlords servicing new debts on property speculation have played their part in this.

If it’s true that 25% of all cask ales in Britain were drunk within the M25, Chelsea is definitely going against that trend. In central London the conversions with the highest margin have been for residential (e.g. Red Lion, Waverton Street).

Now the threat is partial residential conversion (e.g. Queens Arms) and back to gastro only (so many examples, some excellent restorations, some not so), we wait and see what will happen to the Sekforde Arms.

So where are the pubs in Chelsea nowadays? Check out the pubs in the southern part of Chelsea, towards the river i.e. “Old” Chelsea here. And the more modern part of Chelsea laid out in the 19th century after the opening up of the King’s Road here.

All is not lost

Finally there is light at the end of the barrel. In fact the rules have changed and if a pub wants to change into any other commercial usage. This protects even the high street and hopefully this alarming trend will be degenerated. The Government has now made it more difficult to change the use of a building as a pub to another designation….

“Asset of Community Value” (which restricts the permitted development rights which the owner would otherwise have).

From 23 May 2017 planning permission will be required for a pub (a class A4 use) to be used as a shop (a Class A1 use), an estate agent or other financial or professional use (a Class A2 use) or as a restaurant/cafe (a Class A3 use.) Permission will not be required for mixed pub/ restaurant use.

What can you do if you see this in your area?

Spending time in your community pub is always the best thing you can do but failing that CAMRA organises campaigns to save pubs from closure

CAMRA reckon 29 pubs a week are being lost across the UK. If you feel you local boozer to be an Asset of Community Value (ACV) this prior protects pubs from demolition or cconversion to other uses without planning permission. Pubs with ACV status are given planning protection.

With 800 pubs currently nominated, the initiative aims to raise the profile of ACVs to the pub-going public and increase the number with the status to 3,000 by the end of 2016 – an ambitious target, but one which CAMRA say is essential if England’s pubs are to be properly protected.

CAMRA is working with local community groups to nominate pubs as ACVs. For more information about the ACV campaign, please visit www.camra.org.uk/list-your-local

Pubs of Zone 1 are not under the same pressures as the rest of the country in general, but for precious community pubs in residential areas of Zone 1 it’s far, far worse.

For residential Chelsea there is no going back, these pubs are lost forever. Time will tell if the new guidelines make a difference in areas under these extreme pressures.

]]>https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/10/30/where-are-all-the-pubs-in-chelsea/feed/0philmarkhamFitzrovia to Eustonhttps://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/10/22/fitzrovia-to-euston/
https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/10/22/fitzrovia-to-euston/#commentsSun, 22 Oct 2017 13:18:17 +0000http://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/?p=3188On a mild November evening Dave led us around some lesser visited pubs in Fitzrovia and a final farewell to an old favourite.

We assembled in The Hope, next to Pollock’s Toy Museum. For a busy Friday night we didn’t have to wait too long to be served. It is a smallish pub – or ale and pie house according to signage. We can’t vouch for the pies, but the Adnams Mosaic Pale Ale was very nice. There was space inside but we opted to stand outside as the weather wasn’t too chilly and none of us were particularly interested in the American football game being shown.

It was a short walk to our next stop, the appropriately named Fitzrovia, a Greene King establishment. We managed to get a table in this cosy pub. The ale selection was limited, the usual Greene King IPA and London Glory was on offer though pleasingly there was also Starry Night which most of us went for. As we walked out on to Goodge Street we paused to note a minor piece of trivia: that the tube station of the same name was not in fact on Goodge Street itself. More interesting was the street’s reputation in the 1960s for illicit substances.

A few minutes to the west we found ourselves in The King & Queen on Foley Street, a lovely corner pub with a real old fashioned feel – wood panelling, thick carpets and plenty of pictures of kings and queen (unsurprisingly) – though not so old fashioned as to actually still serve Watney’s Red Barrel. They had a good selection of beers on five hand pumps, Marston’s 61 Deep Pale Ale being a nice session ale. We again chose to stand outside and enjoy the weather.

Heading along Howland Street we stopped outside the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre to appreciate the overhead décor and the window displays about the workings of the brain (not impaired by our visit to three pubs, of course) before reaching The Carpenter’s Arms which has a small room downstairs and an upstairs terrace.

The latter was full so we again took our drinks – the very sessionable Yulu Loose Leaf Pale Ale was a popular choice – out on to the quiet street corner to learn some hotly debated (and badly guessed) trivia about the nearby BT Tower. Most memorable amongst the facts was that the circular design was intended to withstand a nuclear attack and that for decades the building was covered by the Official Secrets Act, meaning it was technically an offence to reveal the location of this 191 metre high tower…

We then moved on to The Marlborough Arms, another corner pub and another Greene King pub though with a wider beer selection than usual. We settled around a table towards one corner of this spacious pub, concluding that despite its size it still felt cosy and traditional.

Our next stop came after a 10 minute stroll towards Euston to the much loved Bree Louise on Coburg Street. This visit was tinged with sadness as it will shortly be demolished to make way for the HS2 rail link. The good news is that the landlord islooking to relocate so hopefully we can return to its new premises soon. Amongst the large range on offer, the Bree Louise 4.2% session pale ale was a good choice.

Our final pub of the evening was The Resting Hare, which in contrast to the other places we’d drunk in this evening was very modern. The range of beer was good, including some less commonly seen on tap such as Kernel’s Table Beer (very tasty yet light in alcohol) and Beavertown Neck Oil (though in fairness we’d also seen that at the Marlborough Arms).

And after some discussion we also decided that it was pub of the crawl. Congratulations to The Resting Hare!

]]>https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/10/22/fitzrovia-to-euston/feed/1londonpubcrawlsChelseahttps://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/10/09/chelsea-2/
https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/10/09/chelsea-2/#commentsMon, 09 Oct 2017 18:56:09 +0000http://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/?p=3023At the end of September 2017, Phil took us on a walk around Chelsea.

We met up at the Fox & Hounds close to Sloane Square, a surprisingly small traditional corner local which feels a long way from zone 1. It’s a Young’s pub, and was selling just Young’s Bitter and a guest on the evening we visited, but given how cramped the bar area is, they don’t have the capacity of a large specialist bar, but what it had in spades was character and a friendly welcome from the staff. Very nice start, and we were grateful that it was still warm enough (just about!) to stand outside, as it would probably have been rather cosy had everyone been indoors.

Around the corner next to another surprising find, the Rose & Crown. This was larger than the Fox & Hounds and was also traditional in its own way, but with more of a 1980s feel, being a friendly neighbourhood pub, probably one of the last unmodernised pubs in Chelsea, with a couple of real ales on offer including London Pride.

We walked to the King’s Road now, where Phil gave us a potted history of the street, and particularly its lost pubs and its trendy heyday of the 60s and 70s, including the famous Chelsea Drugstore (Now a McDonalds) which featured in a Rolling Stones song, and The Pheasantry with its chequered history, including a narrow escape from the law for Eric Clapton and where a new band Queen played one of it’s first gigs in 1972. After a few stops we arrived, appropriately enough, at the Chelsea Potter. We’d visited here once before, a few years ago now, but then it was the last call of the evening, and my memory is fairly hazy, so it was good to see it in all its glory! It was a pretty large and modern pub, with a few interesting ales on, and space to bag a table even on a Friday night.

Just behind the King’s Road we came to the Builders Arms, a self-proclaimed ‘trendy gastro pub’, but one which has revived a very pleasant drinking bar on one side, with a good range of beers as you’d expect from Geronimo.

After pausing to admire one of London’s smallest houses across the street, which sold recently for over £700k, we went into the Sydney Arms, at the end of the street. This was pleasantly lively, and we were lucky to bag a table under a TV showing the Friday night football. On Sydney Street we walked past the incredibly large St Luke’s church with it’s flying buttresses and neo-gothic exterior. When it was built in the 1820s it marked the expansion of Chelsea; away from its origin on the sunny Thames bank; to the north of the King’s Road, which was opened to the public at around that time.

Phil gave us a rundown of the sad tale of the many lost pubs of Chelsea we passed on the walk to the next pub, until we arrived at one of the few surviving hostelries, the Admiral Codrington, where apparently Fergie was amongst the famous faces that used to be spotted here. We didn’t clock any celebrities, but had an enjoyable pint in pleasant surroundings, and they even stocked our favourite crisps (OK I can’t speak for everyone on that point, but at least some of us!), though it was surprising that it wasn’t busier, especially given the number of closures nearby.

Our next target had already closed its doors by this time, so we ended up at the Hoop & Toy, a busy Taylor Walker branded pub in South Kensington, still busy with a mix of tourists and locals enjoying the ales (such as Sambrook’s, which we went for) and some other craft beers. The pub has roots going back to 1760, and its name relates to the clobber associated with stabling customers’ horses on site, but sadly the area was badly bombed during the last war, and the current building feels somewhat lacking in character to me.

And so to the Pub of the Crawl. After some debate, the Sydney Arms was voted pub of the crawl, helped I’m sure by the warm feelings that seeing Fulham’s win engendered amongst certain voters… Congratulations!

]]>https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/10/09/chelsea-2/feed/1londonpubcrawlsFox and HoundsIslingtonhttps://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/islington-3/
https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/islington-3/#commentsSat, 02 Sep 2017 15:48:55 +0000http://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/?p=2931At the start of September 2017, Dimo took us back to Islington for a walk between Angel and Highbury & Islington.

We met at the Alma in Chapel Market, which has been taken over and refurbished by One Mile End brewery, with a good vibe and an excellent range of beers including of course One Mile End’s own, including Bavarian Breakfast, which is probably not the sort of breakfast to consume on a weekday…

Once assembled, we headed to the nearby Islington Town House, another relatively recent recipient of a refurbishment, this time by Hippo Inns, including pump handles made of fork handles. The pub is comfy on all floors, service very efficient and friendly, and a good range of beers on offer, we all went for Orbit’s IVO which was very good.

Close by lies the similarly named Islington, which has less of a pub feel as it functions largely as a gig venue, but nevertheless it was a very pleasant spot to spend some time, and although the range of beers was smaller than in some of the larger and more specialist pubs this evening, they were interesting ones; we largely went for an Italian session IPA, which certainly made a change.

A slightly longer walk now up Liverpool Road, past the Business Design Centre which started life as the Royal Agricultural Hall; the high pavements on Liverpool Road are a legacy of the days when the street was full of cattle and pedestrians needed protection.

The next stop was the Regent, the busiest pub of the evening, possibly because they were showing the evening’s England match (although most weren’t watching it, so it may just be popular!). The beer range was decent (if not quite as exotic as some of the specialist venues on this crawl), and most went for Luppollo Pale Ale (from Hackney, not to be confused with its Canadian namesake).

We headed next to Upper Street and the Taproom, which as the name suggests is a specialist beer pub with a brewery taproom feel and a range of interesting beers including up to eight casks served by gravity from a very unusual stillage behind the bar; the Hackney Kapow! which I had was excellent.

A slightly longer walk now, off the main roads to the Duchess of Kent, tucked away near Highbury Corner. This fairly large and bright pub was welcoming, and we enjoyed the Young’s ales or Camden Pale Ale before heading to the final call of the night.

So last up was the House of Hammerton, which as the name suggests is part of Hammerton Brewery’s empire, showcasing all their beers a few streets from the brewery. My cask N1 was in perfect order, while some went for more exotic offerings, either from Hammerton itself or guests such as Stone, Magic Rock, Spanish brewer Mala Gissona.

So as usual we voted on a Pub of the Crawl at the end. This was tricky, there was some very good competition, but in the end we agreed on the Taproom on Upper Street. Congratulations!

]]>https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/islington-3/feed/2londonpubcrawlsTaproomCamdenhttps://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/07/22/camden/
https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/07/22/camden/#respondSat, 22 Jul 2017 13:49:11 +0000http://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/?p=2882In July 2017, Rich took us for a crawl from the Euston Road to Camden.

We met on Warren Street at the Smugglers Arms, which despite the name and range of rums is sadly bereft of crusty old men in waterproofs and sou’westers singing sea shanties, but does have a pretty good beer range for a place with such a small bar, with a small number of excellent beers on cask including Sail Pale Ale, and a good and wide range of interesting bottles. Despite the small bar, the pub was accommodating a large crowd outside in the street, and the staff were very efficient and friendly.

Once assembled, we headed next to the Queens Head & Artichoke, a fairly large pub for a surprisingly quiet district, just to the north of the busy Euston Road but feeling much further away. Between us we generally had the classic of 6X, or in a couple of cases Shedhead on keg.

The walk to the next pub took us through a council estate to the White Moustache, a surprisingly gentrified pub in a building which looks like it should be serving Fosters and John Smith’s. But no, this is aimed at the more affluent incomers, serving gastro food alongside a good range of beers, although sadly the Citra pale ale several of us opted for was on the turn at the time of our visit.

We kept on going north next, to the Edinboro Castle, a large pub with an even larger beer garden, which was pulling in the summer crowds when we called. There was an excellent range of beers inside, although because of the queue at the bar we headed instead to the small bar in the garden, with only a couple of keg beers available, but at least fairly good options such as Camden pale ale.

After soaking up a bit of the summer evening atmosphere in the garden, we turned towards Camden Town, and the local BrewDog, where the expected range of their beers was on offer, and we even managed to bag a table downstairs, which we didn’t expect in Camden on a Friday night.

From here we moved east, to the Prince Albert, which was surprisingly empty inside, but everyone was out in the garden enjoying the last of the summer evening.

We also got to drink outside the nearby Constitution, a very busy pub still at gone 11pm, with a good mix of customers and lovely position beside the Regent’s Canal, although sadly by the time we were there the back garden had closed, presumably due to its proximity to neighbours.

We did head back along the Regent’s Canal to head to a canalside pub at King’s Cross next and bring us safely back to zone 1, but it had closed by the time we got there, so we essentially called it a night there (although a couple of people may have sneaked off in hunt of a final pint!)

So, to the business of Pub of the Crawl. For its lively and mixed crowd, and location tucked away from the sometimes frenetic centre of Camden on the canal, the Pub of the Crawl is the Constitution. Congratulations!

]]>https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/07/22/camden/feed/0londonpubcrawlsBarbicanhttps://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/05/29/barbican/
https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/05/29/barbican/#respondMon, 29 May 2017 16:43:42 +0000http://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/?p=2799In May 2017 Tim took us on a short but very interesting walk around the Barbican area, on the fringe of the City of London.

We met up at the Shakespeare, a stone’s throw from Barbican station. This busy pub is on the ground floor of a 1960s building but is surprisingly traditionally furnished inside, and offers a fairly decent range of beer and good value Italian food.

From the Shakespeare we headed through the Golden Lane estate, a prestigious 1950s housing scheme which laid the template for many council estates which followed it, but in this example retains some of the social aspects missing from many later estates built more cheaply, and a short walk through the estate takes us past the tennis courts, swimming pool and sports centre.

Out the other side of the estate we reached the Two Brewers just in time for the cask of Purity Mad Goose to run out. There were some decent alternatives on offer but we were patient, and were rewarded with some delicious pints of Mad Goose fresh from the new cask, which we supped out in the street, across from the site of the 1600 Fortune Playhouse.

We moved on now, via a rare section of wooden road, to the Artillery Arms, a small, friendly Fuller’s pub opposite the Bunhill Fields burial ground, where prominent people including William Blake, Daniel Defoe, John Bunyan and Susannah Wesley are buried. We managed to order a beer which needed changing again, but all the Fuller’s beers were in good condition and served with a smile.

We popped into the lobby of a university further down Bunhill Row for a sneaky peek at the Artillery Ground, a cricket pitch owned by the Honourable Artillery Company which used to be London’s premier cricket ground, in use since at least 1730, when London beat Surrey on 31 August. It also hosted the first manned flight in England when Italian Vincent Lunardi undertook the first balloon flight from this spot.

We called next at the old Whitbread brewery, which in 1750 was the UK’s first purpose-built mass production brewery, but sadly is not only no longer brewing on this site, but Whitbread have divested themselves of their brewing operations altogether.

The next actual pub was just along the block, the Jugged Hare, an upmarket gastropub serving fancy food and small selection of ales including Thornbridge Lord Marple.

Just around the back of the Jugged Hare lies the Barbican centre, an arts and cultural centre opened in 1982 and home, so we found, of a bar selling craft beers, in the shape of Bonfire, up on the first floor. No cask ales here, but a few interesting bottled beers, from Redchurch, Thwaites, and more.

A short walk through the unusual Barbican estate and across a footbridge and we came to the local pub, the Wood Street Bar, quite well hidden on the ground floor of the estate. Despite the name, it is a ‘real’ pub rather than a bar, and from the inside you wouldn’t know that you were in the Barbican, until you get to the back of the pub, as we did, and take a window seat looking out onto a lake.

From here we headed for one last drink in the Globe, a large Nicholson’s pub on a prominent position right by Moorgate station. There is a wide range of beers here, including unfiltered Pilsner Urquell from tanks in the pub, which was very nice.

There was just time before closing to agree on a Pub of the Crawl, and we voted for the Artillery Arms, the small friendly Fuller’s local. Congratulations!

]]>https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/05/29/barbican/feed/0londonpubcrawlsArtilleryArms.jpgHAC.jpgBarbican.jpgHoxtonhttps://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/hoxton/
https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/hoxton/#respondSat, 22 Apr 2017 10:56:37 +0000http://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/?p=2725In April 2017, Artie took us for a crawl around the Hoxton area.

We started out at the Electricity Showrooms near Hoxton Square, an attractive pub with some interesting beers on, though just a couple on cask; these were good though, we had both, Bread & Butter from Vocation Brewery in Hebden Bridge, and Pint from Marble in Manchester. What really let the place down though was some ridiculous doorstaff searching people on entry, asking people in their 40s for ID, and confiscating soft drinks being carried in bags. All this at 6:30 in the evening.

Still, that was just a rendezvous point, and the next venue was pretty special. 7 Seasons is one of the new generation of specialist craft beer bottle shops which also have space inside to drink on the premises, still pretty uncommon in London. The range is superb, over 400 beers from around the world. We had quite a variety of beers between us, but personally I had a delicious Mikkeller Session IPA, while Artie’s 1000th unique beer on Untappd was also a Mikkeller, a Citra IPA, and a fine way to mark a milestone.

A short walk along Hoxton Street – setting for Richard Ashcroft’s famous walk in the Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony video – brought us to Howl at the Moon, a smallish but busy corner pub with a reputation for interesting beers. On this occasion three of the six pumps were devoted to cider, and the beers were all quite strong for a session; we had a mix of Aurora from the pumps and Beavertown Gamma Ray from the taps.

We left shortly after the music volume was cranked up and headed for the George and Vulture, a Fuller’s pub and the tallest pub in London apparently, with a modern interior and tasty-looking pizzas being cooked at one end of the bar.

Next up, one of the legendary pubs of London, the Wenlock Arms. Its bar of 10 handpumps, and large number of ciders and keg beers, may be bettered in some of the newer and larger specialist craft beer joints, but this one is not only a humble local pub, but provided this sort of range long before it was fashionable, and had to fight for its very existence when a developer tried to replace the pub with flats. So it was great to be back, and we enjoyed a combination of Siren’s Sound Wave, Mariana Trench, and Oscar Wilde Mild. All were delicious.

Around the corner lies the William IV, where we called next. It’s an attractive pub and the staff were very friendly, but the range of interesdting pump clips behind the bar were sadly not representative of the offer this evening, which consisted only of GK IPA on the pumps.

Off now to the final pub, the Three Crowns, a nice revival for an attractively tiled pub that was closed down for quite a while but is back, looking good and serving some good beers under the new management which took over just this month, including on our visit Hackney Kapow and Brew House Small Batch.

We did head for another couple of pubs but they had stopped serving, so we had a quick debate on the Pub of the Crawl before heading to the tube. I’m pleased to say that an old favourite the Wenlock Arms was named Pub of the Crawl. Congratulations!

]]>https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/hoxton/feed/0londonpubcrawls7seasons.jpgBermondseyhttps://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/03/18/bermondsey-2/
https://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/2017/03/18/bermondsey-2/#respondSat, 18 Mar 2017 12:55:38 +0000http://londonpubcrawls.wordpress.com/?p=2581In March 2017 Paul took us back to Bermondsey, for a crawl taking advantage of the increasing opening hours of some of the brewery taprooms of the Bermondsey Beer Mile.

We started out at Southwark Brewing, who were, I think the first of the local breweries to start opening on Friday evenings, and at the time of writing they’re open several evenings a week. Unusually for the new generation of craft brewers, the focus of Southwark is on traditional cask ales, and several were on offer; we mostly went for the Session IPA as there would be quite a few more venues to follow, and it was in excellent condition as you would expect.

Further down the railway arches lies Anspach & Hobday, another small craft brewer, this time more focussed on keg beers, generally stronger in content and consequently we downsized from pints for this venue. Some interesting experimentation has been going on at A&H, with beers on offer including a smoked pale ale, sea salt and chilli stout (sounds interesting but didn’t try this one) and a Belgian bitter. There’s always something new to try here and keep you coming back.

Heading deeper into Bermondsey, we came to the next railway arch brewery, Brew by Numbers, which has enlarged its taproom somewhat since I was last here, and added some tasty-looking street food out front for the peckish.We stuck with the slightly smaller servings again, trying a variety of beers between us; I went for a dark beer this time, the coffee & milk stout, which was delicious and definitely left me wanting more.

But, on we go, this time to Ubrew, which is pretty much next door to the previous venue but accessed from the other side. This is a different type of brewery, in which anyone keen to brew can rent a brewing kit and brew their own beer, but with brewery-quality kit and ingredients. Brewing was under way from about three different groups when we visited the taproom, which sells a variety of beer, some brewed on site and some not. I tried a smoked pale ale for the first time (having only heard of such a thing an hour earlier) and it was very good.

I was also very pleased to find in the fridge a 0.5% chocolate stout from Big Drop Brewing;this was pretty good stuff, very tasty for something with such little alcohol. I firmly believe that very low alcohol beers should be widely available in pubs for those times when you want to socialise but can’t drink for whatever reason, or simply want to reduce your alcohol intake for the evening without going home early or switching to water or fizzy drinks. So well done to the guys at Big Drop, I look forward to seeing the Citrus Pale Ale I can spy on your website as being available soon!

We started heading back towards town now, and stopped this time at the Marquis of Wellington, opposite one of the earlier ports of call. For a long time this was a regular backstreet local, but has been renovated into the contemporary style, with a modern interior, good range of drinks, and some excellent-looking pizzas being prepared behind the bar. The beers were from London and included a cask from Southwark brewing and a seasonal beer from Anspach & Hobday, which must have been brewed about 50 metres away, but I was slightly surprised that the pub hasn’t gone even bigger on local provenance; they could probably sell 200 different beers, all brewed within walking distance. Still, pretty impressed with the place, will be back for pizza some time.

We headed next for an old favourite of mine, the Dean Swift in Shad Thames. I do love this place. The beer range is constantly changing, and they think it through; for example I’ve been there to watch Tottenham v Arsenal, and they’ve had Redemption Hopspur (brewed in Tottenham) and Hop Stuff APA (brewed on the Royal Arsenal) next to each other on the bar. Very good work!

A slightly longer walk now as we began to head back towards London Bridge, and called at the Rose. This is a pleasant, upscale place, with a more limited beer range than the previous venues, and just the one handpump; however the beer on, Ringwood’s Mauler, was good. They also have an interesting floor downstairs made out of pennies; my shoes will appear in someone’s photos of the night, as I was asked to pause and pose my feet for a picture on my way to the loos!

More craft beer could be found at the final venue of the night, The Miller. While this may look like a dodgy 60s place from the outside, it’s actually a young and lively venue, and has a good range of ales and other craft beers, including a very long bottled list.

All in all an excellent evening, and time only to agree on the Pub of the Crawl. Unusually we also visited several breweries on this walk, which were all excellent but the award is ‘Pub of the Crawl’ rather than ‘brewery of the crawl’ – frankly all the breweries are excellent. Although we called at my favourite pub, they have been visited and awarded the title previously, so the Marquis of Wellington was voted Pub of the Crawl for breathing new life into this pub in Bermondsey. Congratulations!